The Mexican says that next couple of days very important for McLaren, the opening day of Barcelona test Sergio Perez’s penultimate day in the MP4-28 before Melbourne, and the wet weather prompted the team to undertake a more conservative run programme.

Checo conducted some aero mapping in the morning before the team chose to focus on developing a stable set-up on the Intermediate tyre and putting some solid mileage on our 2013 package. With 100 laps under his belt, it was a positive first day.

“I think there is a lot of work to be done in the next couple of days for us and they’re very important days for the start of the season,” Perez told Autosport.

“I think we would definitely like to go into Melbourne with much more information than we have at the moment. We had a couple of difficult days with problems with getting the information from the car. It’s important that we maximize our chances. I’m sure everybody around the paddock has problems. Everybody would like to arrive in Melbourne a bit better prepared.”

“On my last day I would really like to learn about the updates we have on the car and about the set-up, and to get comfortable with the set-up, the last day I was here, I was not comfortable with the set-up. We have some changes and obviously I would like to try them before Melbourne.” Perez said.

“But if I don’t get the opportunity to try them then we have to look forward to Melbourne and there’s nothing we can do.”